Locals shine at Breakthrough MMA event

Sunday

Aug 25, 2013 at 12:01 AMAug 26, 2013 at 2:26 AM

By Brian Linderbrian.linder@news-jrnl.com

DAYTONA BEACH — Saturday night’s Breakthrough MMA card at the Ocean Center had a little bit of everything.The hyped main event fighter delivered, a couple local guys shined and a reality TV star scored a big knockout. “Man, it was an amazing show,” Breakthrough MMA promoter Jason Arnett said. “And the turnout was amazing.”Arnett estimated that around 1,000 people were on hand for the show. Those in attendance saw former Atlantic High wrestler Jay Pressley — who said he was coming off a near half-year layoff due to a broken orbital bone — deliver one of the night’s more impressive performances with a unanimous decision flyweight title win over Dillon Gower.Despite his wrestling background, Pressley, who trains at The Armory, overwhelmed Gower at times with his striking. Pressley credited Pete White with helping him hone his boxing.“I really believe in my stand-up against anyone,” Pressley said. Gower proved tough as well, nearly catching Pressley with several submissions. “He is definitely a purple belt,” Pressley said. “I respect his ground game to the fullest. He had a good armbar on me, and he had a couple chokes. I knew every time he had the chokes, I just had to work the two-on-ones, get up, and my game plan was to defend the takedowns and keep it standing.”In the featherweight title fight, Fight Sports Daytona’s Anderson Hutchinson ran his record to 9-0, and helped his gym post a perfect showing on the night — Chris Jacobs, Ivan Robles and Aaron Delgado all won — with a unanimous decision win over William Sizemore. “I’m not really too happy (with the way I fought),” Hutchinson said. “But I won so I’m happy with that.”Brad Taylor, who appears on the History channel’s “Ax Men,” took the middleweight title with a third-round knockout of Alex Nicholson. Just seconds into the round, Taylor loaded up on an overhand right that dropped Nicholson.“I knew I had power in my hands, and I wanted to use it,” Taylor said. “I knew I had the first and second round in the bag, so I just wanted to come out and throw hands in the third round and it turned out real well. I think I closed my eyes (on the overhand right). I gave it 100 percent.“You come three hours, pick up a belt ... that ain’t a bad night. I’m telling ya.”Titusville native Mo “The Beast” De’Reese capped off the night by moving up to heavyweight — he holds three amateur title belts at light heavyweight — to score a unanimous decision win over Dominick Tomanelli for that division’s heavyweight title. “He was tough,” De’Reese said of Tomanelli. “He was definitely worthy of a championship. He just did not get one today.”De’Reese improved to 11-0 as an amateur and said he hopes to make the move to the professional level.The first nine fights of the event ended via submission. None of them made it out of the second round. In total, 12 of the 16 fights ended via stoppage.